Monitoring Reactor Anti-Neutrinos Using a Plastic Scintillator Detector in a Mobile Laboratory

Understand

Technology developed for the T2K electromagnetic calorimeter has been adapted to make a small footprint, reliable, segmented detector to characterise anti-neutrinos emitted by nuclear reactors.

• The device has been developed and demonstrated by the University of Liverpool and underwent field tests at the Wylfa Magnox Reactor on Anglesey, UK.
• It was situated in a 20\,ft ISO shipping container, above ground, roughly 60\,m from the 1.5\,\GWt\ reactor core.
• Based on the design of the T2K Near Detector ECal, the device detects anti-neutrinos through the distinctive delayed coincidence signal of inverse $\beta$-decay interactions using extruded plastic scintillator and Hamamatsu Multi-Pixel Photon Counters.